AbzasMedia
Abzas Media trial begins in Baku
The seven media workers were detained for smuggling in November 2023.
An anchor at the independent online Azerbaijani TV channel, Kanal 13, has been sentenced to 30 days of administrative arrest, a week after the channel’s founder was arrested.
Rufat Muradli was convicted on Monday of petty hooliganism and disobeying police. He was arrested on Saturday after an alleged altercation with police officers in Baku.
His lawyer, Nazim Musayev, stated that Muradli was detained following a verbal altercation with plainclothes police officers.
‘Something happened between them in this matter. Rufat resisted, and that’s why they detained him’, said Musayev.
Muradli is the second Kanal 13 journalist to be detained since the recent arrest of the station’s founder, Aziz Orujov, and the arrest of several members of AbzasMedia, another independent Azerbaijani news outlet.
[Read more: Editorial | Ilham Aliyev’s attempt to eradicate the free press cannot succeed]
Muradli is also a member of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Welfare party, whose chair, Gubad Ibadoghlu, has been in prison since August on charges of acquiring or printing counterfeit money.
Several members of Ibadoghlu’s party have been detained in the months following his arrest.
[Listen to the Caucasus Digest: Podcast | The arrest of Gubad Ibadoghlu]
The party’s deputy chair, Adalat Yusubov, dismissed the accusations levelled against Muradli as bogus.
‘The arrest of journalist and party member Rufat Muradli is an example of immorality, immorality, and lack of culture’, wrote Yusubov on Facebook.
‘This arrest is not only ordered but also political in nature. This arrest decision is aimed at limiting Rufat’s political activity and his activity as a journalist.’
Read in Georgian on On.ge.
Related Articles
AbzasMedia
Explainer | One year on in Azerbaijan’s crackdown on independent media
November 2023 was a black month for journalists working for Azerbaijan’s independent media outlet and OC Media partner AbzasMedia, marking the beginning of a renewed crackdown against independent media. On 20 November 2023, police raided the offices of AbzasMedia, claiming to have found €40,000 ($44,000) in cash during their search. Earlier that day, both the media site’s director, Ulvi Hasanli, and its deputy director, Mahammad Kekalov, were detained at their homes. Hasanli alleged that he
AbzasMedia
Azerbaijan presses new charges against three detained in AbzasMedia case
Azerbaijani police have pressed new charges against two of AbzasMedia’s staff members and an economist detained during the crackdown on independent media. The chief investigator of the Baku City Police Department on Friday charged AbzasMedia’s deputy director Mahammad Kekalov, journalist Nargiz Absalamova, and unaffiliated economist Farid Mehralizade with illegal entrepreneurship, smuggling assets as part of an organised group, tax evasion, and falsifying documents. If found guilty under the
AbzasMedia
Azerbaijani economist ‘kidnapped’ and detained in AbzasMedia case
Azerbaijani economist Farid Mehralizade was detained as part of the government’s crackdown on AbzasMedia, despite not having any ties to the independent news outlet. Mehralizade was expected to testify in the AbzasMedia case on Saturday, but was reportedly abducted and detained two days earlier, on 30 May. His wife, Nargiz Mukhtarova, said that her husband disappeared in the early morning of 30 May, and was escorted to their home by the police around noon that day. ‘The police brought him
Most Popular
Subscribe to our newsletter
